


Patience

by avidbeader



Series: Avidbeader's Sheith Quote Week 2017 [4]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: M/M, Post-Season/Series 04, Sheith Quote Week, Sheith Quote Week 2017, Sheithquoteweek
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-20
Updated: 2017-12-20
Packaged: 2019-02-17 12:08:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 777
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13076565
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/avidbeader/pseuds/avidbeader
Summary: Shiro considers where Keith stands with Voltron and the Blades.Sheith Quote Week Day 4: "Patience yields focus"





	Patience

**Author's Note:**

> This was written with a potential sequel to "From the Outside Looking In" in mind, but I don't think you need to read it first (unless you want to).

 

 

Shiro watched from the observation gallery as Keith worked with several other Blades in combat training. He still didn’t know how to feel about everything that had happened while he had been trapped in the astral plane and then working his way back to the team. Keith had eventually done as Shiro asked and tried to lead Voltron. And it sounded like things might have fallen into place if they hadn’t found Shiro’s clone.

 

But they had and the clone now known as Ryou had done what he had been programmed to do, slowly undermining the team until Keith had chosen to leave and force leadership back onto the Black Paladin. It was intensely frustrating for Shiro. He  _ knew _ that Keith had it in him to be a good leader beyond battlefield tactics. He could see it right now, in front of him.

 

The Blades’ way of training was based on sparring with partners, then gradually building to two-on-one, three-on-one scenarios and more, much like the ever-growing gauntlet they’d run Keith through for the Trials. Keith had held his own against four much larger opponents, using his smaller size to his advantage and showing off some dazzling skills with his blade. Now he was one of three going after a newer recruit. Keith transitioned easily from encouraging the recruit even as the three of them went after him with nearly full force to directing the other two attackers in moves designed to present the recruit with real-life scenarios.

 

At some signal Shiro didn’t see, everyone paused in their training and broke off, heading toward the walls. Keith moved with them, grabbing a towel and deactivating his mask in order to mop the sweat from his face. Another Blade pushed a drink into Keith’s hand and clapped him on the back. Whatever he said made Keith smile a little and raise the drink before taking a sip.

 

_ Dammit, he looks like he belongs here. _

 

But Keith belonged with Voltron as well. He belonged in the Red Lion--the feeling of joining into one just wasn’t the same knowing that Keith wasn’t there as his right hand, able to read Shiro’s intentions and act on them almost instantly.

 

Shiro wanted to ask Keith to come back. He was almost certain that Keith would say yes. Keith had never denied Shiro before. Not at the Garrison--it was one of the reasons that Shiro had been so cautious in keeping them just on the side of friendship. It had scared him, knowing he had that kind of power over Keith, to know that all he had to do was beckon with a joining of hands or even an intentional look and Keith would have followed without a second thought.

 

Even now, after the distance of Kerberos and its aftermath, after Voltron, Keith had really only disobeyed Shiro once. And choosing to sneak away from the team had been an act of trying to protect Shiro, protect the team, by determining for certain whether he was the one Zarkon was tracking.

 

Shiro slammed his left hand down hard on the sill of the observation window, letting the pain wash up his arm and distract him.

 

“Please don’t break the base. Your beast did enough damage last time.”

 

Shiro looked up, surprised at Kolivan actually making a joke. The Blade Leader moved to stand next to him, both of them looking down at the group below as they continued to rest, stretch, and hydrate.

 

“He won’t stay with us forever, you know.”

 

Shiro jerked up, surprised again. “You don’t know that. Keith has always wanted a place to belong.”

 

“Yes. But this isn’t it.” Kolivan turned to face Shiro. “You may have noticed, a strong trait in the Galra race is to fixate on something, pursue it, sometimes to the point of self-damage. A cause, a goal...a person.”

 

Shiro’s thoughts flew to the story the other paladins had shared, of the Zarkon from ten thousand years before, willing to sacrifice his team and his planet for the sake of the woman he loved. To a Keith abandoning his future at the Garrison and going off alone to chase shadows in the desert because of Shiro’s disappearance. To a Keith willing to give up the chance to know his own history on the say-so of a Shiro created out of the depths of his own mind.

 

“Have patience. He doesn’t feel that he deserves to be by your side again. He still blames himself for falling into the same trap everyone else did. He’ll learn. And then he’ll turn back to you.”

 

_ Patience yields focus. _

 

He turned to focus on Keith again.

 

 


End file.
